House Commons: Ravenclaw

ISSUE #23

Happy Equinox, all! It's serendipity that we get to celebrate Ravenclaw on this astronomical equilibrium. Ravenclaw is the house that's the hardest to elaborate upon, as they're simplest in attribute (smart), even as they're most complex in their pursuits (getting smarter). They don't need a defense like Hufflepuff or Slytherin — there's an argument to be made that they're the most desired house — and they don't need to be calmed down like the capital-E Extra Gryffindors. They keep pretty quiet, because they're usually studying. I'm pretty sure I'm not a Ravenclaw, but I do own a grey sweater and grey P.J. pants, and I like to call that outfit The Grey Lady.

It can be hard for Ravenclaws to identify themselves as such until the Sorting Hat descends upon their heads. Even upon sorting, a lot of Claws express disbelief at making it in. It's easy to recognize a smart kid, but it's hard to know where you fall on the knowledge spectrum when the mind tends to focus on all that we may never know. Of course, the true thing that defines a Claw is not how much food-for-thought your brain can hold, but the size of your appetite. A Ravenclaw wants to learn as much as they can in this short lifetime — not to conquer or prevail, but to witness and wonder.

It sounds like the biggest "boo-hoo," but it's also kind of hard to be smart. Ignorance being bliss is one of humankind's most persistant aphorisms, precisely because its ratio of daily utterance to enduring truth is so impressive. Knowledge can be as much a curse as it is an enlightenment (anyone who's ever been cheated on knows this), and not only for the hard work it takes to obtain it, but also for its destabilizing nature, and the risk we run of uncovering a bleak or dismal truth hiding beneath it all. All this explains the Claw's propensity for anxiety, which is why I put Cayetana on here, one of my very favorite bands and the queens of writing mental health anthems.

The Ravenclaw definitely has a need for study music, and I kept some Chopin on here, but I couldn't rightfully fill your head with my ambient music for fifty minutes (you can go back to Issue #1 if you want my take on that genre). Instead, I wanted to focus on their active listening habits. Claws love a sweeping maximalism in their music that can match their rigorous engagement, which stops not only at classical but extends to a love of math rock, black metal, IDM, krautrock, and Electric Light Orchestra, whatever the hell they are.

There's a lot to unpack in a Ravenclaw song, but you'll be rewarded if you try: GZA and Aesop Rock have vocabularies that rival Melville, Kraftwerk and Can were making music that sounded like no other at the time, The Mountain Goats and They Might Be Giants have catalogs that are as expansive as they are nerdy, and "Laisse tomber les files" is in French so actually I have no idea what that's about, but it sounds smart and — surprise — it totally rules.

The centerpiece here, however, is Sufjan Stevens's "Age of Adz," which is my favorite song at the moment and sounds like a night spent in Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Stevens sometimes gets some shade thrown at him, because he was at the front-line of the twee-indie phase we all went through in the 2000s and he did it all with that name, but no one has a knack for sheer composition these days like he does. Just listen to the layering on those whirs and blips, a steampunk symphony you could explore for hours.

I lament that Joanna Newsom couldn't be on here, as she's the only one who could beat Stevens at his game, but she hates Spotify. I have my issues with it as well, which is a conversation we'll have to have in the future. For now it's the most consistent way to share music with you guys, and that shit keeps me sane. I am consciously looking to someday adopt an ethical alternative, but I've got to figure some things out first, like how to get through a day at work without spraining my jaw frowning.

Enough tangents: here's to the blue and bronze! Have good weekend everybody, and have a happy first day of autumn. Catch me out celebrating, I'll be wearing my favorite hat.